People today live with mass-produced goods and depend on electronics to get through the day. However, vintage crafts have not lost their appeal. Many people collect them, while others practice them as a hobby or a livelihood. Some historians also want to preserve old skills so they won't be lost entirely.
Crafting is working by hand with almost any material you can imagine, while the word 'craft' can denote the skill itself or the object made. Arts and Crafts shows are so named because many objects made to serve a necessary function are also works of art. In fact, the artistic urge leads many people to engage in crafting as an outlet for their creativity.
Essential things were often made to include beauty as well as function. Fishermen's sweaters, for example, were made to keep men warm on the high seas in inclement weather. Women spun homegrown wool into yarn, often leaving the natural lanolin in to help the garment shed water. These housewives, mothers, and sisters were not content to fashion a merely serviceable sweater. Instead, they developed many of the intricate stitches still used by today's knitters.
Everything needed for the home and farm was made by the people who would use it or by artisans that worked near-by. Furniture, bedding, eating utensils, candles and lamps, clothes, shoes and boots, and tools of every kind were homemade. But consider the creativity that embroidered sheets and pillowcases, made colorful quilts and woven blankets, turned the legs of chairs and tables, trimmed dresses, and waterproofed leather boots.
Think of all the utilitarian things that people made into objects of beauty: baskets, pottery, lifelike duck decoys, eating utensils, drinking glasses, hooked or woven rugs, and stained-glass windows, to name just a few. Other household items that did not have to be improved but were include soap, candles, pot pourri and sachets, chair cushions and sofa pillows, and tablecloths.
Collectors preserve this heritage, as do museums. Older objects - from Colonial days, for example - may be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. Even cloth items sometimes survive. An attic may have an old trunk full of beaded dresses, kidskin gloves, or smocked christening gowns from grandparents or even great-grandparents.
People still practice most, if not all, of the early handicrafts. Today you can take a class at a shop or a community college and learn to hook a rug, cane a chair seat, restore an oil painting, or crochet an afghan. Visitors to Colonial Williamsburg can see glass blowing, silver casting, candle making, and iron forging. Arts and crafts festivals showcase the wares of potters, woodcarvers, quilters, weavers, jewelry makers, and even book binders.
It's important that the old skills not be completely lost. Not only are they part of every society's heritage, but they also evoke the times and people of long ago who loved beauty and incorporated it into their everyday lives. Working in wood, stone, metal, clay, animal skins, riverbank reeds, or worn-out things (old files were made into pocket knives), people used to and still can make utilitarian things that are works of art, too.
Crafting is working by hand with almost any material you can imagine, while the word 'craft' can denote the skill itself or the object made. Arts and Crafts shows are so named because many objects made to serve a necessary function are also works of art. In fact, the artistic urge leads many people to engage in crafting as an outlet for their creativity.
Essential things were often made to include beauty as well as function. Fishermen's sweaters, for example, were made to keep men warm on the high seas in inclement weather. Women spun homegrown wool into yarn, often leaving the natural lanolin in to help the garment shed water. These housewives, mothers, and sisters were not content to fashion a merely serviceable sweater. Instead, they developed many of the intricate stitches still used by today's knitters.
Everything needed for the home and farm was made by the people who would use it or by artisans that worked near-by. Furniture, bedding, eating utensils, candles and lamps, clothes, shoes and boots, and tools of every kind were homemade. But consider the creativity that embroidered sheets and pillowcases, made colorful quilts and woven blankets, turned the legs of chairs and tables, trimmed dresses, and waterproofed leather boots.
Think of all the utilitarian things that people made into objects of beauty: baskets, pottery, lifelike duck decoys, eating utensils, drinking glasses, hooked or woven rugs, and stained-glass windows, to name just a few. Other household items that did not have to be improved but were include soap, candles, pot pourri and sachets, chair cushions and sofa pillows, and tablecloths.
Collectors preserve this heritage, as do museums. Older objects - from Colonial days, for example - may be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. Even cloth items sometimes survive. An attic may have an old trunk full of beaded dresses, kidskin gloves, or smocked christening gowns from grandparents or even great-grandparents.
People still practice most, if not all, of the early handicrafts. Today you can take a class at a shop or a community college and learn to hook a rug, cane a chair seat, restore an oil painting, or crochet an afghan. Visitors to Colonial Williamsburg can see glass blowing, silver casting, candle making, and iron forging. Arts and crafts festivals showcase the wares of potters, woodcarvers, quilters, weavers, jewelry makers, and even book binders.
It's important that the old skills not be completely lost. Not only are they part of every society's heritage, but they also evoke the times and people of long ago who loved beauty and incorporated it into their everyday lives. Working in wood, stone, metal, clay, animal skins, riverbank reeds, or worn-out things (old files were made into pocket knives), people used to and still can make utilitarian things that are works of art, too.
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